The present invention relates to automatic mechanical car parks. Such car parks generally consist of a containment building, with a reinforced-concrete or steel structure, installed in which are the necessary handling systems and machinery, with automatic collection from the entrance bay, where the user leaves the motor vehicle, and automatic return to the user at the exit bay, of motor vehicle which are contained within the said building throughout the parking period. To be specific, the present invention relates to one of the systems normally used in handling motor vehicles in this field, namely a carriage for the horizontal transfer of the motor vehicles from the parking bay (or from the entrance bay) to a handling platform, the function of which is to transport the carriage, with or without a motor vehicle, between the parking bay and the entrance and exit bays, or from a handling platform to the parking bay (or to the exit bay). During transfer of the vehicle, the handling platform, on which the carriage is normally parked, and the parking bay (or the entrance or exit bay) involved in the transfer, lie in the same plane and their respective longitudinal axes, in the line of the transfer movement, are aligned.
As regards known carriages and accessory systems, the following may be cited as the more significant of the prior art: EP 430892, EP 236278, EP 875644, EP 933493, WO 96/05390, WO 88/04350, DE 3820891, DE 19741638, U.S. Pat. No. 5,148,752, U.S. Pat. No. 3,159,293, U.S. Pat. No. 2,890,802.
None of these satisfactorily solves all of the problems connected with reliable transfer of the motor vehicle, speed of transfer, minimization of the space necessary for transferring and parking the motor vehicle, and minimization of the combined cost of the carriage and associated systems for transferring and parking the motor vehicle.